DFW-MSP mid day flight today. App was offering $80 upgrades a few days ago. There's 58 open seats in econ, 1 in first and I'm EP and #3 on the list.

​​​​​From October to November, I'm on three A321T redeye flights from LAX to BOS/JFK. Naturally, I've been checking the waitlists for these flights and I've been shocked at how many names are on the list. My soonest LAX-BOS redeye in October has been selling buy-ups to J for $600, but the cabin is still about 3/5ths occupied (on a Tuesday night, nevertheless).

Flagship Lounge access pre-flight and lie-flat for a redeye is a fantastic way to travel coast to coast, and all of this suggests I'm far from the only person who thinks this.

Guys quick question. EXP for 22 years here long time lurker. Estimated Rolling 12 month LP 250k. My flight patterns are primarily overseas long haul. Never travelled SFO JFK but just got a flight for the long weekend in coach. I see a ton of inventory in F and 3 in business on the AA transcon 320 seems like a nice airplane. Question for the pros here which by the way shoutout to the mods is still the best site for road warriors.
Do EXP’s in Business get upgraded to F compliemantarily or are upgrades limited to Business from Economy. Outside of some IRROPS scenario, will they ever bump up a business class EXP to First to accommodate an EXP from coach to Business?

Outside of IRROPS, they will never bump a J to F

Only to Business. Double upgrades are very rare and yes may be due to irregular operations or the business cabin getting overbooked. In other words not gonna happen.

System wides have been a total bust for me. We have literally lost over 100 of them over the years. In the old years you would get 8. Then went down to 4 and now because guys like me complained all the time (Ive been an EXP for 0ver 22 years) they give you choices so you can select something else. the problem is that American has gone down the route of other airlines and its all about instant money. The value of a mile is actually like a penny so the whole thing is primarily loaded with benefits for them not the passenger. so use those miles up they will only devalue its a one way street

Why do I never see in-app upgrade offer? I have a DFW-LHR flight, AA50. I know it's a busy route. Currently it's C0. I bought basic economy, but I thought as an EXP BE does not preclude my on buy-up offer?

Ha. Makes sense thank you.

As an EXP BE doesn't preclude you from upgrading with a SWU but it still does prevent you from getting any app upgrade offers (or just upfaring or changing your ticket etc.) AFAIK.

That said I believe we have seen some cases of buy-up offers on BE tickets but only at check-in IIRC.

On the a321T, its very common. Several people have reported op ups from J to F here. My cousin managed the double upgrade 6 times in a row on SFO-JFK and back.

No one buys AA F and J can sell out during peak times. They oversell J constantly and cabin roll.

I see.. good to know. On a whim I called the EXP desk they said exactly the same thing and said that they would be moving a bunch of folks up from J to F. I just ponied up 15k + 75 and locked my J seat anyway.

Last few years its all been Qatar J for me. So will admit that some of us are spoiled.

Last week I was on a Delta F SFO-DTW - it was horrible..

Is that not by definition IRROPS? Overselling?

Overselling is very much a part of regular operation. It's not IROPS.

Flew JFK-SFO on Sunday afternoon, #1 on upgrade list as EXP w/ 350k LP and did not clear. EF showed 6 seats for sale leading up to the weekend, selling in-app for $450, with 3 open before boarding, but did not clear at any time.

AA really is getting tough on the upgrades. I cleared DCA-PBI and PBI-DCA tomorrow but both at about T-12 or T-13 hours. Oddly, while tracking this flight, I noticed that today's morning flight got swapped out for an A320. Mechanical issue? Or new schedule?